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popping sound when cutting off digital audio

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when i pause/mute a video (on youtube for example), i sometimes, not all the time, hear a "pop" sound very slightly, this was the worst on tidal as it was happening way more often. i am able to record this sound also if that matters.
this goes away when using ASIO drivers with qobuz but i don't always use windows so using ASIO drivers for everything isn't possible.
if requested, i could give a video of the sound if that would help in any way.

and yes, i have tried updating my drivers for my dac, i don't think this is a dac issue though so i might've posted this in the wrong place, sorry about that
 
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Marc v E

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Ah. That is quite common.
Iirc it has to do with the pc being a noisy device and can be solved by using optical spdif or a galvanic isolator on the usb.

I'm not 100% certain, but this forum should provide the right answer for sure as I've seen this lots of times on ASR posts. Even a quick search should provide you with your answer.
 

RandomEar

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Ah. That is quite common.
Iirc it has to do with the pc being a noisy device and can be solved by using optical spdif or a galvanic isolator on the usb.

I'm not 100% certain, but this forum should provide the right answer for sure as I've seen this lots of times on ASR posts. Even a quick search should provide you with your answer.
I don't think it's related to USB noise, as the OP doesn't observe the issue with ASIO drivers. It's most likely related to the DAC muting the output stage when either the sample rate changes or it receives digital silence as input for both channels. Either way, this sounds like a DAC or driver problem to me. It may still help to try SPDIF/TOSLINK, as that connection might handle silence differently compared to USB.
 
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Ah. That is quite common.
Iirc it has to do with the pc being a noisy device and can be solved by using optical spdif or a galvanic isolator on the usb.

I'm not 100% certain, but this forum should provide the right answer for sure as I've seen this lots of times on ASR posts. Even a quick search should provide you with your answer.
I don't think it's related to USB noise, as the OP doesn't observe the issue with ASIO drivers. It's most likely related to the DAC muting the output stage when either the sample rate changes or it receives digital silence as input for both channels. Either way, this sounds like a DAC or driver problem to me. It may still help to try SPDIF/TOSLINK, as that connection might handle silence differently compared to USB.
i have been told this is to do with the fact that it isn't muting with a fade, it's instantly cutting the signal and depending on the waveform it is quieter or louder. this sounds quite accurate to me
https://streamable.com/zpq3pn here it is (listen for when i mute)
 

RandomEar

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i have been told this is to do with the fact that it isn't muting with a fade, it's instantly cutting the signal and depending on the waveform it is quieter or louder. this sounds quite accurate to me
https://streamable.com/zpq3pn here it is (listen for when i mute)
Could you tell us a little more about your setup? Which source? Which DAC?
 
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Could you tell us a little more about your setup? Which source? Which DAC?
yes but this isn't an issue with my dac, i have tested on more than one dac and had the same thing
 
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Katji

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I'm not 100% certain, but this forum should provide the right answer for sure as I've seen this lots of times on ASR posts. Even a quick search should provide you with your answer.
Yes, I've been thinking that maybe I'm very fortunate, "blessed," I've never had any of these problems. Nothing.
Just connect the laptop to the DAC, install the DAC USB/XMOS/ASIO driver, find the best setting for the volume on the amps it works with Windows volume at 99% ...and then the same with Edifier active speakers...Default Device...switch on the speaker, Windows switches, volume to 99%, switch it off and it reverts to default, ASUS/Realtek. etc.
 
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Yes, I've been thinking that maybe I'm very fortunate, "blessed," I've never had any of these problems. Nothing.
Just connect the laptop to the DAC, install the DAC USB/XMOS/ASIO driver, find the best setting for the volume on the amps it works with Windows volume at 99% ...and then the same with Edifier active speakers...Default Device...switch on the speaker, Windows switches, volume to 99%, switch it off and it reverts to default, ASUS/Realtek. etc.
i'm fairly confident that this is just what i said earlier in the thread, it would make the most sense too
if u repeatedly mute a youtube video (at least on pc firefox), u will most likely have the same thing
 

RandomEar

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i'm fairly confident that this is just what i said earlier in the thread, it would make the most sense too
if u repeatedly mute a youtube video (at least on pc firefox), u will most likely have the same thing
OK, now I'm getting it. I didn't hear anything in your example at first, but now I understand. Yes, I get that too if the audio is cut hard and not faded out. Never really thought much of it or - really - noticed it at all. Yeah, you're essentially cutting a waveform while it elapses - occasinally, you'll even hit some peak. That's gonna leave artifacts in the sound output. Not sure if those artifacts are inherent to the process, or introduced by DAC filters or Windows audio processing. But yes, I can confirm that this is a thing.

Thinking further about it: If you don't get that with ASIO drivers, it mst be the Windows audio stack, right? Did you ever capture the digital output in Windows while muting multiple times? Maybe that's something to look into for further analysis.
 
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OK, now I'm getting it. I didn't hear anything in your example at first, but now I understand. Yes, I get that too if the audio is cut hard and not faded out. Never really thought much of it or - really - noticed it at all. Yeah, you're essentially cutting a waveform while it elapses - occasinally, you'll even hit some peak. That's gonna leave artifacts in the sound output. Not sure if those artifacts are inherent to the process, or introduced by DAC filters or Windows audio processing. But yes, I can confirm that this is a thing.

Thinking further about it: If you don't get that with ASIO drivers, it mst be the Windows audio stack, right? Did you ever capture the digital output in Windows while muting multiple times? Maybe that's something to look into for further analysis.
thanks for this reply, it is nice to know even more people are having this same thing and it's not an issue.

actually i think it might have to do with the default windows audio drivers yes, but i also have this issue using pulseaudio on linux, maybe linked to latency in some way? i can't tell, but with ASIO on qobuz, this very rarely happens, if ever. i can't run ASIO drivers on everything though, from what i know linux support for ASIO is non existent and quite a few windows programs don't support it even if ur running an ASIO translation layer
 

threni

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maybe linked to latency in some way?
It's related to stopping a waveform at a point where it's not zero. Mystery solved.
 
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It's related to stopping a waveform at a point where it's not zero. Mystery solved.
yes but why is it not happening on ASIO drivers, or at least as frequently? maybe they are just fading out a bit before cutting off the stream completely, idk
 
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